It's Your Birthday!

Well it's not actually YOUR birthday (unless it is) - but it's my friend Suzanne's birthday.

She is the owner of So Suzy Stamps, and is one of the funniest people I know. I met her at CHA last year, and her infectious laugh just made me happy. Her husband and I, although we've never met - are bonded for life through our shared love of all things cat. We enjoy torturing Suzy with cat pictures, cat memes, threats of the bushels of kittens he's going to bring home, planning trips where we all go to cat shows and cat cafes. It's really a great source of joy in my life, much to her chagrin.

But since it's her birthday, with the exception of this critical backstory information, this will be a cat-free post. But it ends today, Suzy. It ends today!!

This blog hop is actually a SURPRISE blog hop for her birthday - so she will get to wake up today and have fun seeing what a bunch of people have done for her today, including her cats. Wait - no - I said I wouldn't talk about cats anymore. Sorry Suzy - old habits!!

Suzy got me addicted to mirror image stamping. This is an old technique - but I'll be honest - before the MISTI and mirror image stamps it was real drudge work. The image quality was poor, the process was too involved - major buzzkill. I don't like techniques that cause me mental anguish.

So when I got to pair Suzy's Mirror image rubber with the MISTI I was in heaven, and became a bit obsessed with the technique. Search "mirror" on my blog to see the depths of my depravity in this regard.

But one thing I've never done before today is use mirror image stamping and words - so I thought I'd give that a whirl for the birthday girl. #seewhatididthere

I HAD to get out my new Distress Oxides first though. I saw these at Creativation and could not wait to get them ordered. The techniques were amazing, and any opportunity to expand my ink collection is always welcome.

While I was making the video for this card, I realized something that will change life on this planet.

You ready?

distress oxides are the lularoe leggings of ink

Let that sink in for a second.

I have been lovingly petting the surface of this card since I made it.

It's sooooo incredibly soft. I was mindlessly rubbing my card like some kind of weirdo when I realized the only other thing I do that with is the buttery soft LulaRoe leggings. I had always wondered how they could be incorporated into my cards, and now I know - they've been turned into an ink, and its name is Oxide.

I'm sure Tim would have to check himself into an institution if he saw that parallel, so please don't tell him. Thank you. Let's try to look out for each other.

However, if you are patting your Oxide cards and purring - just know - you heard it here first.

Shoot - purring. Sorry Suzy - no more cat talk. Pinky swear.

So after I created the background (video below comparing these to Distress Inks), I used the mirror image rubber and the Super Duper stamp set to finish the card off.

I'm going to need the rest of the Distress colors to come out in this ink format STAT. I also need to stop petting my card. Please take a look while I go put my card in the other room.

all supplies used linked below

InLinkz.com

So fun! I wish you had pat-o-vision. Actually - I really wish that was a thing. I know Mr. Suzy and I would use it on all the (redacted) videos on Facebook.

Anyway - without pat-o-vision, you'll just have to imagine the texture as you watch my video on this process and a comparison with Distress ink. Note above that the case for the Oxides is actually a grey, so you won't mix them up with your Distress inks, if you were worried about that.

I hope that helped you see the difference, and how much fun those are.

Not as fun as Suzy, but fun!

Happy birthday my friend - thank you for always making me laugh, and for giving me my mirror image obsession and for putting up with my kitten conspiracies with your hubby! #wewillwinthoughdontdoubtme

To celebrate Suzy, if you comment on all the blogs in our hop today, you might win one of the prizes listed below - so head to Justine's blog next to get started!

So without further cats ado - here is the full list of bloggers today - the next stop after me is Justine, and then you can just hop on down the list for your chance to win an original MISTI from My Sweet Petunia, a Den Bunkie bag, and a $20 So Suzy shopping spree from Justine!

Justine Hovey

Kymona Tracey

Josefine Fouarge

Jennifer Loftfield

Martha Lucia Gomez

Effie Cho

Iliana Myska

Steph Ackerman

Giada Rigamonti

Cornelia Wenokor

Henriette van Mierlo

Terri Burson

Olesya Kharkova

Monica Taylor

Janis Ford

Ceal Pritchett

Lydia Fiedler

Loveyameanitbye.